Hugh O'Shaughnessy | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/profile/hugh-o-shaughnessy
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The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope review – ‘exhaustive and detailed’https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/04/great-reformer-francis-radical-pope-review
Pope Francis is a man whose international influence can only grow, as this useful biography affirms<p>Now in his late 70s, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, according to some reports from Rome, is showing his age and may not live long into his 80s. There are even dark hints that some of his Italian opponents in the Vatican&nbsp;are bent on mischief, as they might have been at the time of the&nbsp;strange, untimely death&nbsp;of Pope John Paul I in 1976, and still smarting at the disappearance of the ancient usage that&nbsp;the leader should be a native of their country. After the election of a Polish, followed by German and now – for heaven’s sake – an Argentinian pope, some Italian feathers are still ruffled.</p><p>Yet the tremendously vital but brief&nbsp;papacy of John XXIII in the early&nbsp;1960s illustrated that a short five-year reign by the right man can produce new and very welcome currents of thought in an ancient institution. As the enormous political coup brought off last month when Francis and his men <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/18/us-cuba-deal-a-marriage-18-months-in-the-making-blessed-by-pope-francis" title="">doused the flames of hostility</a> that had been raging for half a century between Havana and Washington demonstrated, forceful and skilled Vatican diplomacy can bring amazing results.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/04/great-reformer-francis-radical-pope-review">Continue reading...</a>BiographyPope FrancisCatholicismChristianityThe papacyWorld newsCultureBooksSun, 04 Jan 2015 11:30:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/04/great-reformer-francis-radical-pope-reviewPhotograph: AGF s.r.l./RexPope Francis: the Cuba-US rapprochement was an enormous political coup for the papacy. Photograph: AGF s.r.l./RexPhotograph: AGF s.r.l./RexPope Francis: the Cuba-US rapprochement was an enormous political coup for the papacy. Photograph: AGF s.r.l./RexHugh O'Shaughnessy2015-01-04T11:30:01ZCuba: Paintballing, gay bars, cashpoints … the country looks forward to an age of prosperityhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/11/cuba-changes-bring-mood-of-optimism
A new generation of Cubans never knew Fidel Castro's glory guerrilla days; with Marxism-Leninism sidelined, they are benefiting from an opening up of the economy and a mood of cautious optimism<p>There's a buzz in the air in Havana. Since the new year dawned, economic reforms have been piling up almost daily as the president, Raúl Castro, steps up his attempt to drag his becalmed nation towards modernity and prosperity. In streets and squares across the battered and crumbling Cuban capital, evidence of the reforms is everywhere to be seen.</p><p>New things are springing up everywhere. Under the forceful direction of Eusebio Leal, Havana's official historian, the hauntingly beautiful city, a Unesco world heritage site, is being smartened up with a will. The biggest structure on the skyline, the dome of the Capitolio, erstwhile seat of the Cuban Congress, is being repaired under scaffolding. New, privately owned eating places, <em>paladares</em>, or privately run restaurants such as the Cuba-Italia in Calle Cuba, are appearing like magic.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/11/cuba-changes-bring-mood-of-optimism">Continue reading...</a>CubaAmericasRaúl CastroFidel CastroWorld newsSat, 11 Jan 2014 11:42:08 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/11/cuba-changes-bring-mood-of-optimismPhotograph: Desmond Boylan/ReutersTourists ride a US-made 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible on Havana’s seafront boulevard ‘El Malecón’. Photograph: Desmond Boylan/ReutersPhotograph: Desmond Boylan/ReutersTourists ride a US-made 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible on Havana’s seafront boulevard ‘El Malecón’. Photograph: Desmond Boylan/ReutersHugh O'Shaughnessy in Havana2014-01-11T11:42:08ZChilean coup: 40 years ago I watched Pinochet crush a democratic dreamhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/07/chile-coup-pinochet-allende
How the drama and repression developed as a US-backed coup overthrew Allende's government on 11 September 1973<p>Few foreign reporters were left in Santiago on the spring morning of Tuesday 11 September 1973 when Augusto Pinochet, head of the army, was pulling off his trick.</p><p>The previous Saturday he had finally joined in preparations for the long brewing coup d'état against a fairly elected government and, only three days later, was revealing his capacity for terrorism, torture and treason with a foreign power. Only now was he throwing in his lot with a US government that detested the idealistic but ramshackle coalition of six parties headed by Dr Salvador Allende, the country doctor and upstanding freemason who was set on introducing elements of social democracy in a country long organised for the benefit of the landowners, industrialists and money men.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/07/chile-coup-pinochet-allende">Continue reading...</a>ChileAugusto PinochetRichard NixonWorld newsMichelle BacheletSat, 07 Sep 2013 16:52:28 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/07/chile-coup-pinochet-allendePhotograph: Universal History Archive //Rex FeaturesChilean troops make arrests during the military coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende. Photograph: Universal History Archive/Rex FeaturesPhotograph: Universal History Archive //Rex FeaturesChilean troops make arrests during the military coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende. Photograph: Universal History Archive/Rex FeaturesHugh O'Shaughnessy2013-09-07T16:52:28ZPope Francis: Untying the Knots by Paul Vallely – reviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/18/pope-francis-untying-the-knots-review
The new pope kept his silence as terror stalked Argentina in the 1960s. Is he really as humble as the Vatican says?, asks Hugh O'Shaughnessy<p>I don't remember hearing the name of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who became Pope Francis in March, or any of his fellow Argentinian Jesuits when I was in Buenos Aires in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. They seemed strangely silent in such harrowing times when the fundaments of decent civilisation were being set at nought throughout the western hemisphere at the multiplying demands of the cold war.</p><p>They kept their peace, for instance, when their brother bishop Enrique Angelelli was murdered by the country's uniformed terrorists at the orders of General Jorge Videla and Admiral Emilio Massera.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/18/pope-francis-untying-the-knots-review">Continue reading...</a>ReligionPope FrancisVaticanArgentinaBooksWorld newsCultureCatholicismAmericasSat, 17 Aug 2013 23:05:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/18/pope-francis-untying-the-knots-reviewPhotograph: EPAJorge Mario Bergoglio in a 1950s family portrait. Back row (l-r): his brother Alberto Horacio, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, his brother Oscar Adrian, his sister Marta Regina. Front row (l-r): his sister Maria Elena, his mother Regina, his father Mario Jose Francisco. Photograph: EPAPhotograph: EPAJorge Mario Bergoglio in a 1950s family portrait. Back row (l-r): his brother Alberto Horacio, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, his brother Oscar Adrian, his sister Marta Regina. Front row (l-r): his sister Maria Elena, his mother Regina, his father Mario Jose Francisco. Photograph: EPAHugh O'Shaughnessy2013-08-17T23:05:00ZIran and Venezuela have more in common than the west thinks | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/11/iran-venezuala-ahmadinejad-chavez
Ahmadinejad's visit will get US myth-makers talking of Chávez's wily ways, but there are good reasons for the two to be allies<p>The arrival of <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/09/world/americas/venezuela-ahmadinejad/?hpt=wo_c2" title="CNN: Ahmadinejad visits Venezuela on first stop of Latin America tour">Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Venezuelan capital Caracas</a> on Sunday was an interesting but minor item in the process of what has become known as "south-south relations". It will strengthen western myth-makers – the same ones who brought us Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction – on the story of Venezuela as a modern day Cave of the 40 Thieves with Hugo Chávez cast as the wicked and wily Ali Baba.</p><p>For many in Washington and Whitehall, the Venezuelan leader had already shown his wiliness when in 2002, he bounced back from a dreadfully incompetent <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jun/30/venezuela-chavez-catholic-bishops" title="">plot</a> to overthrow him staged by a local businessman with the backing of the Bush government. Now, the myth-makers demonstrate that the evil Chávez is allying himself with the power in the Middle East that is pressing on with nuclear experiments that the west has decided only Israel is allowed to undertake. The myth-makers will be underlining that he is not only wily – by refusing to align himself with US interests in the west while fighting a clearly serious dose of cancer – but uppity as well. The blighter has been using his oil company in the US to distribute cut-price fuel to poor people in New England and the midwest. Is there nothing, they expostulate in the state department, to which this upstart will not stoop?</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/11/iran-venezuala-ahmadinejad-chavez">Continue reading...</a>VenezuelaIranMahmoud AhmadinejadHugo ChávezAmericasWorld newsMiddle East and North AfricaWed, 11 Jan 2012 13:00:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/11/iran-venezuala-ahmadinejad-chavezPhotograph: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty ImagesIranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is welcomed by the Venezuelan vice-president in Caracas. Photogaph: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty ImagesIranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is welcomed by the Venezuelan vice-president in Caracas. Photogaph: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty ImagesHugh O'Shaughnessy2012-01-11T13:00:01ZRidding Catholicism of the stench of this Legionary of Christ | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/sep/21/catholicism-marcial-marciel-degollado
The late Marcial Maciel Degollado did enormous damage, but finally the Vatican is cleaning up his scandalous mess<p>At last, the Vatican begins to move in earnest to clean up the scandalous mess of the egregiously wealthy rightwing Legionaries of Christ. Their members are known to some as the "millionaires of Christ" and their stench has been in the nostrils of Catholics for too many decades.</p><p>A start was made on 15 July to repair the enormous damage to the church done by the late <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcial_Maciel" title="Wikipedia: Marcial Maciel">Marcial Maciel Degollado</a>, who founded the Legion of Christ in 1940. The pushy Mexican priest was the bisexual pederast, drug-addicted lover of several women and father of three who hoodwinked a succession of popes from Pius XII and who was eventually run to ground and disgraced by Benedict XVI in 2006.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/sep/21/catholicism-marcial-marciel-degollado">Continue reading...</a>CatholicismPope Benedict XVIReligionChristianityWorld newsThe papacyWed, 21 Sep 2011 13:31:15 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/sep/21/catholicism-marcial-marciel-degolladoPhotograph: Jorge Guerrero/AFP/Getty ImagesPope Benedict XVI eventually forced out and disgraced Marcial Maciel Degollado in 2006. Photograph: Jorge Guerrero/AFP/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Jorge Guerrero/AFP/Getty ImagesPope Benedict XVI eventually forced out and disgraced Marcial Maciel Degollado in 2006. Photograph: Jorge Guerrero/AFP/Getty ImagesHugh O'Shaughnessy2011-09-21T13:31:15ZThis American confession is an insult to Guatemala | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/31/insult-guatemala-syphilitic-atrocity
The attitude of the US establishment to central America has barely changed since the syphilitic atrocity of 1946-8<p>The commission called in by President Obama to investigate American involvement in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/30/guatemala-experiments" title="theguardian.com: Shocking new details of US STD experiments in Guatemala">deliberate infection of Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases</a> has reported its interim findings. The case concerns 5,500 Guatemalans who were the subject of "medical research" that took place with US collaboration between 1946 and 1948: 1,300 were deliberately exposed to sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, gonorrhoea or chancroid.</p><p>Dr Amy Gutmann, a US university president who led the investigation, said some of the staff involved were "grievously wrong" and "morally culpable to various degrees". I note however that the implication that some were not "grievously wrong" and others were only partially guilty.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/31/insult-guatemala-syphilitic-atrocity">Continue reading...</a>GuatemalaUS newsUS foreign policyObama administrationBarack ObamaSexual healthWorld newsAmericasWed, 31 Aug 2011 21:30:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/31/insult-guatemala-syphilitic-atrocityPhotograph: Edgard Garrido/REUTERSManuel Zelaya, the ousted president of Honduras. Photograph: Edgard Garrido/ReutersPhotograph: Edgard Garrido/REUTERSManuel Zelaya, the ousted president of Honduras. Photograph: Edgard Garrido/ReutersHugh O'Shaughnessy2011-08-31T21:30:01ZHugo Chávez keeps the faith | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jul/06/chavez-faith-venezuelan-president
The Venezuelan president's use of religious imagery in his post-operative speech is telling<p>It was a less ebullient <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/01/hugo-chavez-cancer-diagnosis" title="Guardian: Hugo Chvez tells of cancer diagnosis">Hugo Chávez</a> than usual who addressed his compatriots from Havana, where he was recovering from a second major operation to remove a cancerous growth. He looked as though he'd had a brush with mortality and his message gave valuable clues to his attitudes to life and death.</p><p>After a reference to the works of the national hero Simón Bolivar, Chávez started his televised message saying that he had been inspired by words from the Book of Ecclesiastes about the rhythms of time. The book's tone throughout is that one should fear God and beware of "vanities". Chávez dwelt on the lessons the book, many of whose verses are in common western usage, offered about the past and the future. Among these are: "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven; a time to be born and a time to die …"</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jul/06/chavez-faith-venezuelan-president">Continue reading...</a>Hugo ChávezVenezuelaReligionChristianityWorld newsAmericasWed, 06 Jul 2011 13:30:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jul/06/chavez-faith-venezuelan-presidentPhotograph: Abn/ABN/XinHua/Xinhua Press/CorbisHugo Chávez walks out of the plane after returning from Cuba where he had undergone surgery. Photograph: Abn/ABN/XinHua/Xinhua Press/CorbisPhotograph: Abn/ABN/XinHua/Xinhua Press/CorbisHugo Chávez walks out of the plane after returning from Cuba where he had undergone surgery. Photograph: Abn/ABN/XinHua/Xinhua Press/CorbisHugh O'Shaughnessy2011-07-06T13:30:02ZPriests, plots … and Hugo Chávez | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jun/30/venezuela-chavez-catholic-bishops
WikiLeaks cables have revealed that Catholic bishops played a key role in 2002's abortive military coup in Venezuela<p>In 1997 Eamon Duffy, president of Magdalene College, Cambridge, brought out the best one-volume history of popes that has ever been written. He called it Saints &amp; Sinners.</p><p>In the light of the latest news from Venezuela I would respectfully urge him to set about writing a companion volume about the leaders of the church in Latin America. I suggest that he calls it Saints, Traitors &amp; Sinners.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jun/30/venezuela-chavez-catholic-bishops">Continue reading...</a>Hugo ChávezVenezuelaWorld newsWikiLeaksMediaUS foreign policyAmericasThu, 30 Jun 2011 14:32:55 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jun/30/venezuela-chavez-catholic-bishopsPhotograph: STRINGER/MEXICO/REUTERSVenezuelan president Hugo Chávez. It has been revealed that the country's bishops worked with rightwingers to topple the president in 2002. Photograph: ReutersPhotograph: STRINGER/MEXICO/REUTERSVenezuelan president Hugo Chávez. It has been revealed that the country's bishops worked with rightwingers to topple the president in 2002. Photograph: ReutersHugh O'Shaughnessy2011-06-30T14:32:55ZArgentina's bishops have blood on their hands | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/may/17/argentina-bishops-military-dictatorship
The support of the military dictatorship by Argentinian clergy in the 1970s lent legitimacy to a brutal, oppressive regime<p>There is something of the Lady Macbeth about the Catholic bishops of Argentina, as this month's news from Buenos Aires illustrates. To the lasting embarrassment of a rank-and-file Catholic like me who observed them at close quarters in the 1970s, most were scandalously involved in the taking of innocent lives during the wretched military dictatorship whose crimes – including the murders of brother bishops – they many times condoned. Their robes remain as stained with blood as the Shakespearean character's ever were.</p><p>When the military seized power in 1976 the senior Argentinian clergy in their great majority rallied to their cause. The generals, led by General Jorge Videla, proclaimed themselves anti-communists at a time when western governments were sending their experts to perfect terrorism and torture in Latin America under the pompous and misleading name of the "national security doctrine".</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/may/17/argentina-bishops-military-dictatorship">Continue reading...</a>ArgentinaCatholicismChristianityReligionWorld newsTue, 17 May 2011 09:00:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/may/17/argentina-bishops-military-dictatorshipPhotograph: Eduardo Di Baia/APGeneral Jorge Videla, who seized power in Argentina in 1976. Photograph: Eduardo Di Baia/APPhotograph: Eduardo Di Baia/APGeneral Jorge Videla, who seized power in Argentina in 1976. Photograph: Eduardo Di Baia/APHugh O'Shaughnessy2011-05-17T09:00:02ZToowoomba's sacked bishop is not alone in calling for debate on women | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/may/10/toowoomba-bishop-william-morris
The pope can dismiss William Morris, but he can't stop Catholics wanting to talk about ordination and married clergy<p>Pope Benedict's decision this month to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8487940/Australian-bishop-quits-over-Vatican-row.html" title="Telegraph: Australian bishop quits over Vatican row ">dismiss William "Bill" Martin Morris</a>, bishop of the Australian diocese of Toowoomba, 190,000 square miles of bush inland from Brisbane, was a really, really sad one. Morris was accused of calling for an open debate on the ordination of women and the extension of married clergy to the whole church. In his <a href="http://www.twb.catholic.org.au/documents/bishop_morris_pastoral_letter_2006.pdf" title="Advent PAstoral Letter 2006 (PDF)">Advent pastoral letter in 2006</a> he had indeed called for such debates and added that there should be similar discussion about Catholics accepting Anglican and Lutheran orders and those of the Uniting Church, a grouping of Australian Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Methodists.</p><p>It is an open secret that there is a crescendo of debate about such questions in the Catholic world. The precedents for such action are well known. There are thousands of married priests in Catholicism's eastern rites, all living – doubtless happily – with their spouses in complete harmony with Rome. Such has been the case for perhaps two millennia. And as far as female clergy are concerned, the consecration of various women to holy orders during the Stalinist dictatorship under which Czechoslovakia lived following the second world war, while never officially publicised, has never been declared invalid by the Vatican. And, leaving Czechoslovakians aside for a moment, wasn't Mary Magdalene some sort of heroine in the church's earliest days?</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/may/10/toowoomba-bishop-william-morris">Continue reading...</a>Pope Benedict XVIReligionCatholicismChristianityWorld newsWomenThe papacyTue, 10 May 2011 17:25:14 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/may/10/toowoomba-bishop-william-morrisPhotograph: Alessandro Bianchi/REUTERSPope Benedict XVI dismissed the bishop of Toowoomba for calling for an open debate on the ordination of women. Photograph: Alessandro Bianchi/ReutersPhotograph: Alessandro Bianchi/REUTERSPope Benedict XVI dismissed the bishop of Toowoomba for calling for an open debate on the ordination of women. Photograph: Alessandro Bianchi/ReutersHugh O'Shaughnessy2011-05-10T17:25:14ZThe dying light of NHS care | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/02/dying-nhs-care-private-enterprise
My wife received near miraculous care in her final days – until private enterprise intervened<p>Surrounded by the near miraculous care of the National Health Service, my wife Georgie died at home the other day. With brain tumours that developed over a couple of years from an ovarian cancer, and with her hitherto fine face and slim body puffed up in her last days by the effects of steroids, she fell away in a paralytic haze of dribbling incoherence, accompanied by ever more alarming noises from her throat. It was the end of a marriage that – not without its tribulations – had lasted 50 years and 36 hours.</p><p>I suspect her dying scared us, her family, more than it upset her. She seemed to have been suffering little pain. "We do our best to suppress pain," one NHS doctor told us. As her death approached I valued every day knowing that, pain or no pain, tomorrow's symptoms would be worse than today's.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/02/dying-nhs-care-private-enterprise">Continue reading...</a>NHSHealthSocietyPrivate finance initiativeHealthcare industryBusinessFamilyLife and styleWed, 02 Mar 2011 21:00:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/02/dying-nhs-care-private-enterpriseHugh O'Shaughnessy2011-03-02T21:00:01ZThe sins of the Argentinian church | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/04/argenitina-videla-bergoglio-repentance
The Catholic church was complicit in dreadful crimes in Argentina. Now it has a chance to repent<br /><br />• <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/15/pope-francis-argentina-military-era">New pope's role during Argentina's military era disputed</a> <br />• <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/14/the-pope-francis-i-know">Margaret Hebblethwaite: The Pope Francis I know</a><p>Benedict XVI gave us words of great comfort and encouragement in<a href="http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1346091?eng=y"> the message he delivered on Christmas Eve</a>.</p><p>"God anticipates us again and again in unexpected ways," the pope said. "He does not cease to search for us, to raise us up as often as we might need. He does not abandon the lost sheep in the wilderness into which it had strayed. God does not allow himself to be confounded by our sin. Again and again he begins afresh with us".</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/04/argenitina-videla-bergoglio-repentance">Continue reading...</a>CatholicismReligionArgentinaHuman rightsPope FrancisTue, 04 Jan 2011 08:20:44 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/04/argenitina-videla-bergoglio-repentanceHugh O'Shaughnessy2011-01-04T08:20:44ZAmexica: War Along the Borderline by Ed Vulliamy – reviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/07/amexica-ed-vulliamy-review
A vivid dissection of the calamitous US-Mexico 'war on drugs' is illuminating and horrifying<p>Ed Vulliamy's name has been well known to <em>Observer</em> readers for a very long time, notably for his enterprising and masterly dispatches from his former base in the US, a country for which he clearly has a great, though not unquestioning, affection. His words have over the years brought to life the politics and the social scene in that tortured and paradoxical country, and in other places too.</p><p>Never one to hide his own views, Vulliamy last year delivered a fierce attack on attitudes to the war in Bosnia aimed at Amnesty International (founded as the result of a long piece in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2001/may/27/life1.lifemagazine5" title="">this newspaper by Peter Benenson in 1961)</a> and at Noam Chomsky. He took issue with Chomsky's <a href="http://www.bosniak.org/open-letter-from-ed-vulliamy-to-amnesty-international/" title="">"revisionism in the story of the concentration camps in north-west Bosnia, which it was&nbsp;my&nbsp;accursed honour to discover". </a></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/07/amexica-ed-vulliamy-review">Continue reading...</a>Drugs tradeUS newsMexicoBooksCultureUS politicsUS foreign policyUS militaryNoam ChomskySun, 07 Nov 2010 00:05:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/07/amexica-ed-vulliamy-reviewPhotograph: Guillermo Arias/APA soldier guards packages of marijuana that are being incinerated in Tijuana, Mexico, last month. Photograph: Guillermo Arias/APPhotograph: Guillermo Arias/APA soldier guards packages of marijuana that are being incinerated in Tijuana, Mexico, last month. Photograph: Guillermo Arias/APHugh O'Shaughnessy2010-11-07T00:05:02ZJesuitical reasoning in Georgetown | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/oct/21/religion-colombia-jesuits-uribe-georgetown
Why has the Jesuit university in Georgetown honoured the former president of Colombia?<p>The 31,000 members of the Society of Jesus (also known at the Company of Jesus in Spanish) make up a formidable, driven organisation. They underline their sense of discipline and commitment so it is not surprising that a group of them electrified the church in 1989 when six of them were murdered by US-trained troops at the university their order ran in San Salvador. The Salvadorean military régime could not stand their criticism of its actions.</p><p>It is a remarkable fact therefore that at a very vehement argument has just blown up among them. Father <a href="http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/colombia/doc/giraldo1.html">Javier Giraldo</a>, a teacher in the Jesuit university in Bogotá who is probably the finest political intellect in Colombia, fired off <a href="http://alborada.net/giraldo-protest-uribe-georgetown">a sharp letter last month</a> about the decision of his Jesuit brethren at Georgetown University in Washington. It expressed great concern at their decision to appoint Álvaro Uribe, the outgoing President of Colombia, a "Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership" at their establishment. The move has provoked widespread protest inside and outside the university.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/oct/21/religion-colombia-jesuits-uribe-georgetown">Continue reading...</a>ReligionChristianityCatholicismColombiaAmericasThu, 21 Oct 2010 12:29:56 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/oct/21/religion-colombia-jesuits-uribe-georgetownHugh O'Shaughnessy2010-10-21T12:29:56ZChile's miners can thank God, but their leaders should show contrition | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/oct/14/chilean-miners-god-religion
Government officials and mine owners are using the 'spiritual fervour' of the rescue to hide their appalling safety record<p>Piety is part of daily life in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/chile?intcmp=239" title="Guardian: Chile">Chile</a>, as natural as the towering Andes mountains that cut the country off from the world along its eastern flank. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/13/chilean-miners-rescue-world-rejoices?intcmp=239" title="Guardian: Chilean miners emerge to glare of sunlight and publicity as world rejoices">The miners' reaction to their escape</a> from the depths of the earth this week at Copiapó was no staged affair but merely what one would expect from tough Chilean workers doing a dangerous job in a dilapidated set of tunnels.</p><p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/pinochet" title="Guardian: Augusto Pinochet">Augusto Pinochet</a> himself, at least in his early years, showed the piety he inherited from his devout mother Avelina, who was unlettered but had a ferociously strong will. When he damaged his knee in a road accident at six she vowed she would wear clothes coloured brown – the colour of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Mount_Carmel" title="Wikipedia: Virgin of Mount Carmel">Virgin of Mount Carmel</a>, patroness of Chile – for 15 years if he recovered and that he would do the same for 10 years, reduced to two years if he went into the army. And so it came about.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/oct/14/chilean-miners-god-religion">Continue reading...</a>ChileChristianityReligionCatholicismAugusto PinochetWorld newsChilean miners rescueAmericasThu, 14 Oct 2010 17:31:35 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/oct/14/chilean-miners-god-religionPhotograph: Jose Manuel De La Maza/APChile's president Sebastian Pinera sits among the 33 miners freed from San Jose. Photograph: Jose Manuel De La Maza/APPhotograph: Jose Manuel De La Maza/APChile's president Sebastian Pinera sits among the 33 miners freed from San Jose. Photograph: Jose Manuel De La Maza/APHugh O'Shaughnessy2010-10-14T17:31:35ZThe church and the revolutionaries | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/sep/03/cuba-catholicism-church
Religion cannot afford to be 'above the fray'. The hardest part is deciding how to intervene, as the experience of Cuba shows<p>It has always been my understanding – and it hasn't let me down yet – that those who go around saying "I'm a religious person so I'm apolitical" tend to be conservatives who don't want things changed, a profoundly unscriptural attitude. Their motto is one of a sort of dreary immobilism which they hope will keep them out of trouble, a sort of verbal trick contained in the old query, "When did you stop beating your wife?" As a Catholic trying to become a Christian, I am convinced that immobilism is not an attitude which matches up to the teachings of the scripture or to the examples set by a succession of great women and men who have stood out for decency, their faith and the love of God.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/sep/03/cuba-catholicism-church">Continue reading...</a>World newsCubaReligionAmericasFri, 03 Sep 2010 11:14:15 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/sep/03/cuba-catholicism-churchHugh O'Shaughnessy2010-09-03T11:14:15ZA martyr for peace remembered | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/aug/09/religion-catholicism-jaegerstaetter-newman-beatification
The humble courage of a peasant farmer who refused to fight for Hitler has more to teach us than all Newman's subtleties<p>This is the anniversary of the guillotining in 1943 of <a href="http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20071026_jagerstatter_en.html">Franz Jägerstätter</a>, a peasant farmer from Upper Austria, by the German army in the prison at Brandenburg. His crime was that on religious grounds, as a member of the forces of the Thousand Year Reich, he refused to fight for Hitler and the Nazis.</p><p>As the date of Pope Benedict's visit to Britain approaches and with it the beatification – the bestowal of the title of Blessed – of <a href="http://www.thepapalvisit.org.uk/Cardinal-Newman">Cardinal John Henry Newman </a>in Birmingham the memory of Jägerstätter's simple bravery needs to be fostered and burnished. His example is at least as valuable as Newman's. I salute the late cardinal's intellectual genius but, at the time when the powers of this world are fanning the flames of war from Afghanistan to Colombia and the stupidity of their politics and the atrocity of their actions are revealed by Chilcot and Wikileaks alike, it is the peasant's action which is more urgent and relevant for us in 2010. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/aug/09/religion-catholicism-jaegerstaetter-newman-beatification">Continue reading...</a>ReligionCatholicismChristianityPope Benedict XVIAustriaEuropeThe papacyMon, 09 Aug 2010 08:00:21 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/aug/09/religion-catholicism-jaegerstaetter-newman-beatificationHugh O'Shaughnessy2010-08-09T08:00:21ZAn Orthodox-Roman rapprochement | Hugh O'Shaugnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/jun/22/orthodox-catholic-benedict
Pope Benedict's recent visit to Cyprus embodies the growing warmth between the churches, after centuries of poor relations<p>There can't be much longer to wait, as the visit of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2010/jun/04/pope-benedict-xvi-cyprus" title="Pope Benedict to Cyprus">Pope Benedict to Cyprus</a> this month has shown. The Roman church and the independent Orthodox churches who acknowledge the leadership of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecumenical_Patriarch_Bartholomew_I_of_Constantinople" title="Bartholomew, patriarch of Constantinople">Bartholomew, patriarch of Constantinople</a>, are moving as swiftly as ecclesiastical bureaucracies will allow, to reunite. Not before time, they are setting aside the theological niceties backed by strong doses of <em>odium theologicum</em> which poisoned relations among them over a millennium of scandalous division.</p><p>The presence of Benedict in Nicosia and a warm relationship he cemented with the Cypriot orthodox Archbishop Chrisotomos, is the latest of an increasing volume of contacts which date back to 1964 when Paul VI met and greeted the patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/jun/22/orthodox-catholic-benedict">Continue reading...</a>Pope Benedict XVIReligionCatholicismWorld newsCyprusChristianityEuropeThe papacyTue, 22 Jun 2010 12:15:12 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/jun/22/orthodox-catholic-benedictHugh O'Shaughnessy2010-06-22T12:15:12ZWho can claim Cardinal Newman? | Hugh O'Shaughnessyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/may/17/newman-john-henry-cardinal-catholic
Newman said 'To live is to change'. A timely reminder to those churchmen who love power and the status quo<p>"What on earth have these greasy Italian monsignori to do with Christ and his apostles?" was the question once posed by <a href="http://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/faculty/duffy.html">Eamon Duffy</a>, the distinguished Cambridge historian of the papacy.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/may/17/newman-john-henry-cardinal-catholic">Continue reading...</a>CatholicismReligionChristianityUK newsMon, 17 May 2010 09:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/may/17/newman-john-henry-cardinal-catholicHugh O'Shaughnessy2010-05-17T09:30:00Z